Scarlet Vengeance
by Mistflyer1102
Summary: Even in the cooling ashes of Chicago, all it takes is for one small ember to spark the fire back to life. Revenge is a swift and terrible thing.
1. Ash

**I**

**Ash**

* * *

He estimated he had about less than forty-five minutes left before sunrise.

"Remember what I said. Human tech, _not_ alien tech. While the alien stuff is cool and all, it's kinda useless because it's so damn big, and I don't think I'm going to find a collector who's willing to pay big bucks for it," Thomas 'Rat' Williams said into the cell phone before hanging up. No need to warn his assistant about avoiding the federal authorities, that was a lesson that was hard to forget once learned. Or at least he hoped, he'd already used up all his 'free passes' for the year with the Central Intelligence Agency a week before the alien invasion, and he had to stay out of trouble until January again.

Well, he couldn't bail his assistant out of jail until then away, if the idiot got himself caught.

_So hard to find good help these days. Especially when the pickings are plentiful._

From his perch on top of the latest junk pile, he could see pretty well across the ruined city. The legions of scavengers had descended toward the end of the third day of recovery efforts as more and more rescue teams stopped operating at night as less and less survivors were found. There were still a few that operated at night, but the scavengers, by some unspoken code, had taken to avoiding them. Rat himself even went the extra mile to alert authorities to the presence of a survivor; he did still run into them occasionally, and he wasn't as much of a heartless bastard as the government made him out to be.

He wasn't a criminal out for revenge. He was simply a guy who had decided to make his living off of something illegal since he wasn't quite cut out for the legal options.

Not exactly the best logic, but it helped him sleep at night.

At the moment, he was doing contract work while his assistant continued searching for things that they could sell later in Europe. This had to have been one of the most odd assignments he'd ever gotten, but the client was paying well for both silence and the goods. Once done, neither party would have contact with each other again. Rat wasn't even getting paid to deliver any of it; he just had to collect what little intel he could on the aliens involved in Chicago, nothing big.

He wasn't stupid, he may have not been in the United States when the whole invasion thing occurred, but he hadn't been living under a rock either.

_Creeeeaaaa-_

Rat looked down in alarm right as the metal stack he was standing on let out a groaning sound before slowly toppling over, pitching the smuggler unceremoniously to the ground and narrowly missing him as a large chunk landed inches from his nose. Rat bit his own tongue _hard_ to stifle his shriek; just because the scavengers didn't bother the rescue teams didn't mean they didn't try to kill each other. In the five nights he'd spent in the ruins of Chicago, Rat had nearly been shot, stabbed, drowned, and in one memorable occasion nearly shoved off a bridge by pushy competitors.

Whatever the competitors missed though, the federals usually cleaned up. In fact, the army was the first ones in the ruins before the civilian clean up crews came, hunting down the scavengers that were stupid enough to continue working in broad daylight.

Rat pulled himself up from the ground, coughing as the disturbed ash and dust swirled around him. There was a dull throbbing in his forearm as he forced himself up, and he knew without looking that he'd need to see a doctor when morning came. Not one of the rescue team medics though, he'd already faked being a survivor once, and they took careful note of physical features in order to help with identification and reuniting with families later. Someone would be bound to notice how he appeared in the system at least twice under different names and after the first alias had been escorted out of the city walls.

Now, what exactly had he fallen off of?

Rat had been pretty sure he'd been standing on a stable piece of junk, but his damn miscalculations had cost him precious time. He swore silently as he straightened his spine, his forearm stinging while the other hand patted himself down for the phone.

He only sighed when he realized _that_ was gone.

Pulling out a flashlight, he flicked it on and shined it on the chunk, which actually turned out to be just another of the numerous junk heaps in the city; twisted sheet metal, damaged circuitry, grit everywhere, all in all turning out to be a mechanic's worst nightmare. Rat hummed to himself as he knelt to get a better look at the internal bits; while the chunk as a whole would be useless to him, he could always nick the individual parts to sell off to some folks he knew in California. There was a large, gorgeous cannon attached to the chunk as well, it was damaged but Rat figured he could repair it or strong-arm one of his 'friends' into fixing it. The only catch of course would be that the buyer would most likely be one of the government-sponsored agencies around the world since only they were typically able to match Rat's prices for stuff like this.

The flashlight beam found more and more priceless items underneath the wreck. Rat was dismayed that he'd found it at dawn, which meant he could possibly lose it by the morning, but he figured he might as well as he could take what he could get.

There was also a lot of bright blue liquid like stuff on the ground, something Rat avoided like the plague. He was surprised to find that it was still there until he found one of the pipes still leaking, and then he realized that the wreck was draining of something, which meant that it was either a vehicle or a forgotten Decepticon. The ruins of Chicago were still full of both, blending in so easily that the government missed a lot in their first major sweep of the city. Putting the flashlight in his mouth to continue lighting his way, he got down on all fours and squeezed himself underneath the wreck.

He frowned when he found a cage-like structure that was partially cracked open. Blue liquid continued dripping out of one of the burst pipes, creating a blue puddle underneath the and he gingerly avoided it while reaching for the rock-like object he could see was sitting on the bottom of the 'cage'. He had no idea what the hell it was, but if it was a power source, he could probably sell it for enough money to retire. Which would be nice. Biting his tongue, he strained for the object.

_Beep!_

Rat jerked sharply at the sound of his cell phone (stupid thing had been in his pocket after all), and then howled when his head connected with the chunk of machinery right above him. Remembering _not_ to fall into the blue stuff, he clutched the bump on his head as he pulled his phone out and looked at the caller ID. The assistant.

_Damn._

"This had better be good," he said with a faint wheeze as he tried not to collapse in pain from the growing headache. "As in, so good that I won't feel like murdering you when I see you again."

"_Did I interrupt something?"_ his assistant asked worriedly, and Rat almost groaned with irritation. His assistant was a twenty-something woman from the United Kingdom whose father had been one of his clients… well, before the authorities got to him anyway. Rat never found out what happened to the guy. The assistant meanwhile got anxious easily, and Rat sometimes found himself getting panicked when she did.

"No… you just scared me and I was in a bad spot," he said, maneuvering himself around so that he was in a more comfortable position with his knees up against his chest. "So what's the problem _now_?"

His assistant took a shaky breath before she whispered, "_I just heard from one of the medics that N.E.S.T. is moving into the clean up process in two days._"

Rat was quiet for a moment, silently processing the rather _bad_ news. While he'd never had dealings with N.E.S.T. personally before, he'd heard plenty of horror stories from other underground dwellers. He'd never seen an Autobot or (live) Decepticon in person throughout his life so far, and he preferred to keep things that way. "I thought we had a little more time… wasn't the United Nations still throwing their hissy fit or something like that less than two days ago?" he asked, mentally wishing he'd bothered after all to keep up with the news.

"_Someone has to make sure the federal authorities didn't miss anything in the clean up. There's no telling what's left. There's talk about a general pull out since the radiation levels are slowly climbing, so we may not be here for much longer," _the assistant added. "_The Autobots will be, uh, assisting."_

"In other words, it's time for us to pack up and head out," Rat said, ducking his head so he could crawl out of the enclosed space. Keeping the phone tucked between his ear and shoulder, he asked, "How much time do we have before they come?"

"_Two to four days. They're all in Boston and Washington DC right now, and will travel over land._"

"Did you find enough stuff to sell later?" he asked as he sucked in his gut to better squeeze out from underneath the wreck. He suspected he wasn't coming back the United States for a while, so it was best to stock up while he still could before N.E.S.T. showed up on the scene.

"_Umm… sort of. I picked up_ _some alien tech, I thought we could find a technician who could reverse engineer it into something that we could sell."_

Rat groaned, running through his mental (very short) list of contacts, people who would not shoot him on sight and could manage the reverse engineering.

He came up with zero.

"Well, I suppose we could always – _kidnap_ – someone to do it," he said, groaning as he dragged himself out from underneath the wreck. Glancing up at the sky, he sighed when he saw that it was notably brighter now. "Tell you what, meet up with me back at the hotel. Get the first aid kit, my arm's all scraped up and I think the medics will recognize me again," he said, pulling himself up with the bad arm, hissing softly when the grit-covered sleeve dragged over the shallow wound.

"_You really are masochistic. Dad always said so."_

"Yeah, well, Daddy ain't here now, is he?" Rat muttered as he grabbed the few souvenirs from prior pickings and stuffed them back into his jacket and jeans pockets. "Just do it, and stop questioning me."

There was a soft huff of annoyance. _"Sir, yes sir._" There was a faint _click_ as she hung up before Rat could berate her for the sarcastic farewell.

Rolling his eyes and muttering to himself, he shut the phone off and stuffed it into his pocket as well. _Time to go,_ he thought before turning around to leave.

He promptly came face to face with a large metal head with a snarl on its face.

The resulting screech of surprise echoed for what felt like hours but was most likely only seconds. Rat leapt away from the head, crashing straight into another pile of junk and falling forward, covering his neck as debris rained down from above. Tiny scratches and cuts stung his hands, and he choked on the swirling dust and ash. He tried to swallow down the rising panic, he was all right, nothing was bad was going to happen, the fight was already over-

"Well, well, _well_. Look at what the cat dragged out."

_Shit._

Rat, forcing down the panic attack with a shaky smile, looked up to find five figures standing on top of the capacitated Decepticon. "Ah, here to throw me back into the lake?" he asked wearily, sitting up and letting debris fall off his head and back.

"Not today, it's almost sunrise." The leader, a hulking figure that the scavengers all called 'Henry', moved around the dead Decepticon and easily clambered down to the ground. "We were looking around nearby, but it still felt like you were screaming in my ear," he said, walking over to where Rat was sitting. Hauling the gunrunner to his feet, he held Rat tightly by the collar. "So, Rat, what-"

"Boss!" One of the minions that had jumped down to join the other two men was now examining the metal corpse. "Boss, he found one of the 'Cons."

"What?" Henry promptly released Rat, the other collapsing to the dust.

"It's one of the Decepticons, it matches up with the photograph here," the minion said, pulling up an image on an iPad screen. "Grainy image, but it's similar enough."

Rat shakily stood up again as the two men began fussing over the image and the Decepticon remains. He was fully prepared to admit that he was way out of his depth here. Wrecked vehicles was one thing, dead aliens was a whole other ballpark. His entire body hurt too, from getting tossed around and the little, stinging injuries on exposed skin that was beginning to drive him crazy. In another situation, if he wasn't feeling tired or hurt, he might have even tried to charge good money to let the five men keep the carcass, to make up for time he was losing by standing here while the five of them began working out the logistics of moving everything. Figuring that now was as good time as any to leave, they all were distracted for once, Rat began edging away from the group, intending to make a break for it.

"Rat, you do freelance work, right?" a minion asked, startling Rat out of his thoughts.

"Only if the price is right, and that usually reflects the level of risk involved. Silence costs extra," Rat replied, easily slipping back into his usual sales pitch. "Gotta make a living, you know." He eyed the dead Decepticon, and then said, "But, um, I'm not really cut out for hauling scrap metal across a city."

"Oh, don't worry, we know," Henry said, stepping back as one of the minions rolled the head onto the large blue tarp that someone else had spread onto the ground. "Lou mentioned that you did all sorts of odd jobs so long as the fee matched up." Glancing at Rat, he asked, "What are your specialties?"

"Jack of all trades, but primarily I sell weaponry to whomever is interested and sell information when the first isn't cutting it for the week," Rat replied carefully. He was grateful that Henry and his cronies weren't going to leave him stranded for the authorities to find, but the clock was ticking.

"How about busting people out of federal prisons and doing a little hunt for an object?" Henry said, watching him carefully now.

Rat shrugged. "Like I said, depends on the risk involved. Although if I'm busting _into_ a prison, that's an extra fee right there," he said slowly as he clasped his hands behind his back. "And what kind of object would I be looking for, and what is the time restraint for both?"

"Six months to the second question, and here are photographs of the object that we want found and the person we want free," Henry said as the iPad minion scurried over to show Rat the display.

Rat was quiet as he studied the two images, then he checked his watch. "Tell you what," he said finally. "Email me, and we can negotiate prices then. The authorities should be coming through soon, and I don't want to stick around for that."

"Shouldn't me letting you live be enough?" Henry asked, raising an eyebrow as the iPad minion retreated away from the potential threat.

_If only you knew how many times I've heard that_, Rat thought sourly as he shrugged. "I was planning to hop across the pond after this, you need to make it worth my while to stay here in the States," he said, idly examining the back of his torn hand. He was in trouble if he needed stitches. "_Especially_ if I'm going after the feds all because you want to go Frankenstein on a dead alien, which I suspect the government will _not_ appreciate you doing. Their tolerance of stupidity is shockingly low, surprising given current circumstances. I had this buddy who was doing time in prison for forging the SecDef's signature, got his sentence shortened to thirty years, and then got his original sentence back when he committed the same crime a second time," Rat casually explained. "So, make it worth my while, or you can do all of that yourself."

Rat knew from experience that chances were high that Henry would hire him anyway, especially with the specified time frame. That and the pressure of the encroaching deadline for the day would be increasing with each passing minute. If Henry didn't agree to anything now, Rat was going to pack up and leave the States, give the country some space for a little while.

_Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four-_

"All right, give me your email address and we can negotiate prices. I'll have to contact my employer and inform her of the plans," Henry said, glancing at his minions, three of whom were dragging the head away on the tarp and the other two plotting the best way to conceal the wreck from authorities.

_Her?_ Rat was intrigued; it wasn't often that he came across a female mastermind. However, he got the feeling that asking questions would only make Henry decide that killing him would be easier than doing business with him. "All righty then, so email me, tell me what you want, when you want it, and we'll go from there," Rat said pleasantly, casually backing away from the other men. His time in Chicago was up; the authorities would have started for the day by now. If they found him he was going to jail until either the CIA took pity on him again or January came and he got a new set of 'Get Out of Jail' cards again.

"And if we decide that we don't want your services?" Henry asked, narrowing his eyes when he spotted Rat inching away.

Rat shrugged. "Your call as to whether to tell me or not, I won't be offended either way," he said, shoving his stinging hands into his coat pockets. Fingers curling around the phone just in case, he added, "Just do keep in mind that once I leave the States, I won't be coming back for a while. All that means for you is that I wouldn't be able to devote my personal attention to your case," he said. Glancing pointedly at the sky, he said, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go before the federals show up to continue with yesterday's work."

Henry nodded. "We'll be in touch," he said, an edge of warning in his tone.

Rat merely smiled before backing away.

He waited until he could see another chunk of debris to hide behind before daring to turn his back to the five scavengers. He had no idea what they wanted the dead Decepticon for, but he had no intention of sticking around to find out. In fact, Rat knew he'd feel better once he had an entire ocean between him and the United States, where he just _knew_ the crazy woman behind all this would be based as she did whatever with the Decepticons.

Then again, it was a _Decepticon_ they were talking about. The very name screamed danger, and Rat knew how to run from danger. He'd been skeptical and very wary of the giant robots when they first came to the public spotlight, and Chicago only confirmed his fears that if it ever came down to a fight between the two races, the humans were _screwed_.

But he had a job to do, and that was to deliver what little intel he'd gathered that night to the secure email address. He'd also mention that N.E.S.T. was getting involved now, and Rat would unfortunately be unavailable to provide any more services.

He swore when he tripped on a chunk of debris, the movement jarring stiff limbs and scraped skin. He made a mental note to get medical attention first, _and then_ do his final task. Then move back to Europe, and on to the next client.

Humming to himself, he easily disappeared into the shadows as the first officers of the day arrived to the scene.

* * *

**A/N: Welcome to **_**Scarlet Vengeance**_**! This is the sequel to **_**Operation Jaguar **_**and **_**Air Force One**_**, but can also be read as a stand-alone. Transformers and all related media belong to Hasbro. **


	2. Home

**II**

**Home**

* * *

"Hang on, I've got this."

"Are you sure?"

"_Positive_."

There was silence as Tyler Collins ran a bare hand over the edge of the jet's tailfin, hand wrapping delicately around the edge before he ran it up and down gently. Alexis Preston hesitated, ready to warn him if he was about to approach a particularly sharp edge, but otherwise held her peace as he felt his way along the metal body of the jet. Around the two of them, the other Air Reserve personnel were quietly working, the hum of conversation at a low level as they all tried to beat the summer humidity. Alexis didn't usually stay in Massachusetts, but she'd come out for three weeks as a favor to her longtime friend, Arianna Aliskevicz.

"Wait, I think I know this…" Tyler frowned as he paused over the painted numbers. "Wait… this is Ari's plane, isn't it?"

"Yep." Alexis smiled as a huge grin broke out over Tyler's face. "Granted, I wasn't exactly sure how many people you knew here to begin with, other than Ari," she admitted as she caught Tyler's sunglasses as they were about to fly off of where he'd hooked them on his shirt collar. "I mean, I haven't seen you guys in a while…"

"At least you remembered us. Ari nearly freaked out when we heard that you had slight amnesia," Tyler said as he put his glove back on, a habit he'd acquired after he'd accidentally stuck his hand in the wrong food container, looking for a snack and wrecking dinner instead. Apparently the squishy sensation was too much for him to handle at the time.

"It's not _that_ bad, I still remember people and events, it's just little details that I think I'm missing," Alexis said, lightly smacking his arm. "I could never forget the two of you, or Kina for that matter."

"You forgot Stryker Davis, so Ari got reasonably concerned," Tyler mumbled just barely loud enough for her to hear.

"Not necessarily, I still remember him," Alexis countered. How could she forget him? She knew Davis had been her second-in-command, had been extremely insufferable in the beginning, but, and she wasn't sure if her memory was failing her here, she was pretty sure that she'd loved him at one point. Despite that belief, she wondered if perhaps they were over, since he hadn't been at the hospital when she woke up from the 'flight accident' as the doctors called it, and no one knew who he was or where he was. She'd asked Ari about him once, while she was recovering, but Ari had gotten so twitchy about the whole thing that the doctors had to drag her out before she riled other patients up.

Tyler made a soft humming sound. "No wonder Ari got wound up when she came home. How is it that you remembered _everything_ but Stryker Davis?" he asked as the two of them began walking away from Ari's jet, Alexis keeping a hand on Tyler's shoulder to gently guide him in the right direction.

"Well, if you two would just _tell_ me, we wouldn't have to skirt around the issue all the time. And I didn't remember N.E.S.T. or the Autobots all that well either," Alexis patiently reminded him. She knew what he was going to do next, a half-hearted shrug that wouldn't tell her anything about the question she'd just asked. Her ex-boyfriend, Tyrone Maxwell, hadn't been much of a help either when she asked, instead mumbling something about needing to back to work at whatever issue N.E.S.T. had been tackling at the moment.

Relearning about the Autobots had been a challenge in of itself, having to learn about it through several televised press conferences. She'd remembered only their human faces from before the accident, but it was still a little unnerving to find out that the car she could be getting into was actually a sentient being, never mind a fighter jet. She remembered checking the jet at least three times when gearing up for her last run several weeks ago. The odd thing was that while the jet turned out to be harmless, there was still the vague sense of disappointment that had bothered her for a while after. While she had not flown in Chicago against the Decepticons, her squadron had been preparing to be part of the next set of reinforcements, she had heard about from another pilot who had been there and managed to survive.

Talk about a close call.

"Tyler!" she called, realizing that Tyler was heading in the wrong direction just in time. Cursing herself for not paying attention, she jogged over and gently turned him back in the direction of the main airfield. "Where are you going?"

"Well, I _was_ heading back to the car, but apparently I was going in the wrong direction," Tyler replied mournfully.

"Well, you were heading toward the road, so close idea, but wrong way to go about it," Alexis replied, nudging Tyler toward the parking lot that lay just beyond the main facility. "Where were you hoping to go?"

"Wherever there was an air show. The New England Air Show doesn't come again until next year, but I just want to hear the planes. Real planes, mind you, not the recordings. I miss flying, I wish my eyesight could come back," Tyler grumbled as the two began walking back to the parking lot, careful to remain physically close enough to Alexis so that she could keep him from walking into another jet or worse: a car. Alexis never understood that, but Ari said it wasn't something to get, just that it apparently hurt Tyler more to walk into a car rather than a jet.

"Your eyesight, my memory, and our friend," Alexis agreed, thinking of Ari. The woman was probably raising hell for her temporary employers in London. Ari had certainly been ranting enough about it in the days leading up to her departure; a friend of her mother's worked at the American School in London, and they were looking for a temporary replacement for a secretary who had gone on maternity leave. Mrs. Aliskevicz managed to get her daughter hired without Ari knowing, so Ari was going to be in London working for five weeks until the school coordinator found a more qualified substitute. It was a quiet, monotonous job for the otherwise energetic pilot, and both Alexis and Tyler had received texts and emails begging for a rescue since then. Alexis was going to keep an eye on Tyler until Ari returned, which neither of them minded; it had been a while since they last saw each other.

"I got a voicemail from Ari the other night, apparently there's a psychic in London. It freaks her out that he was able to read her just by looking at her, but she's trying not to make it too obvious," Tyler said, shrugging as they approached the car.

"Mm. I'm sure the coordinators will have their hands full for a while," Alexis replied, shrugging as she opened Tyler's door and waited for him to get in and make himself comfortable before she said, "She's trying to have her 'sentence' shortened."

Tyler waited until she'd closed the door, walked around, and got into the driver's seat before he said, "But she's in _London_. Enough said."

"Remember when the three of us went to London?" Alexis asked, grinning softly at the memory.

"Yeah. Too bad we couldn't get _everyone_ to go, Davis had to go and disappear for a little while. That was annoying, both you and Ari were irritated. Okay, Ari was irritated but you'd wanted him to come too and were just too polite to ask. Or be disappointed about it," Tyler said, pointedly raising an eyebrow.

Refusing to take the bait, Alexis merely replied, "I am so close to just finding Davis on my own and demanding to know what the hell happened because your and Ari's hints are starting to get on my nerves."

Tyler sighed. "The only reason I'm not going to smack my head on the dashboard is because it's nowhere _near_ as satisfying when there's no horn to hit," he said, crossing his arms and slouching in his seat as Alexis grumbled before pulling out the newspaper that was wedged between the seat cushions and tossing it in the backseat. "Oh, was that the _Boston Herald_? Ari was going to read me that one. Or something else, I can't remember which."

"Tell you what, once we get back home, we can read all the newspapers we can get our hands on, how's that?"

Tyler huffed in impatience. "Ari only collects conspiracy stories, you know that. That's probably your copy of the _Boston Herald._ Tell me what's going on in the real world," he said, crossing his arms and letting out an impatient huff, finishing it off with a slump in his seat. "Please," he added as an afterthought.

"Not much really, although there's been a string of jewelry thefts going up the east coast starting from Washington D.C., the latest one being in Worcester, an hour or so away from us," she said, thinking quickly for a news story she'd read recently.

"I know where Worcester is…"

"I know, but this is New England. The name 'Worcester' probably appears more than once," Alexis pointed out. "Anyway, the jewel thief apparently destroys the security cameras before he goes to work, but he never takes anything. He did kill one person, down in Manhattan, but that person would have been the first to see him, so it was easy for the police to figure out that he doesn't want witnesses around. It's just that he's so damn hard to _catch_."

"I wonder how he does it. Are there any consistencies between crimes?" Tyler asked, glancing at her.

"Just that the security cameras are the first to go and that he strikes an hour after each store closes. The jewelry is always found thrown about the floor, display cases are smashed, there are no witnesses, but nothing goes missing. The police think the thief is looking for one item in particular, but there's no telling of what it is," Alexis said, remembering the few articles she'd read while waiting for Tyler at the doctor's. Police suspect it's a one of a kind piece, which doesn't help because apparently stock varies from store to store. The whole thing started three weeks ago, but then Chicago happened, so that entire second week went unnoticed since everyone was focused on Chicago, but the pattern is coming up again now that police are filing more and more complaints."

"Y'know, if all the Decepticons hadn't bit the dust at Chicago, I'd say it was one of them. I remember there was this one Decepticon that looked like a police cruiser, and Ari _hated_ him. I think she's still scared of the police because of that one," Tyler said, grinning at the memory.

"Oh God, that must have been nerve-wracking, since you wouldn't know whether the officer pulling you over was a Decepticon or not," Alexis said, shuddering at the thought. It would have been one more thing to worry about.

"Actually, we memorized his cruiser number. It was significantly easier to avoid him after that," Tyler said, smirking. He hesitated, and then whispered, "I actually couldn't tell if Ari liked him or not, she seemed to have a fondness for him at first before, y'know, we found out he was a Decepticon."

Alexis smiled as she kept her focus on the road. "Was that one killed at Chicago?" she asked, glancing at Tyler.

"Dunno, the Chicago reports are patchy, we're all relying on secondhand news out here. Half of it isn't reliable. I mean if you don't know, then what chance do I have? You have more access to that sort of thing than I do," Tyler said, looking nervous. "I don't stand a chance if he's still around, there's no way that I'll be able to see him coming."

"That's what I'm here for," Alexis said, winking at him. "Anyway, I think Ari would have been careful if she was trying to hide… even though 'quiet' and 'Ari' don't necessarily go together in one sentence if there isn't a negative to go in there somewhere."

"Or when there's a prank involved, I miss doing those," he said, grinning broadly. "She doesn't play pranks on me though, and neither does Jeff when he comes to visit."

"Jeff is her twin, right?"

"Yep. And I'll do you a favor and not tell her you had to clarify who Jeff was," Tyler said, grinning to show her he was just teasing her now.

Alexis laughed softly before moving onto the highway. "Hey, I have a question, I meant to ask Ari when the problem first came up, but I forgot to ask when she called, and now she's gone and can't exactly help me," she said finally, sobering when she remembered the visit from two military officials about a week or so before she was set to go on leave.

"What is it?" Tyler asked curiously.

"Colonel Stanton… she's set to go on trial again for New York this time, and the courts want me as a witness this time," Alexis said finally, remembering her old commanding officer. She hadn't seen Stanton since before New York, hadn't heard of or from her sans the two trials she'd already gone on; Alexis hadn't been asked to participate in those, but the news still made the rounds around the Edwards Air Force base in California.

"Especially since as the phrase goes, 'third time's the charm'," Tyler added, grimacing at the thought. "I know that the first trial was for Oroville, second was for Washington D.C. and now this one is for New York…"

"I never did understand why they retried her for Oroville, that was what, _eight_ years ago?" Alexis said, glancing at Tyler for a second.

"Six. Oroville was in 2005, Washington D.C. was in 2007, and New York was in 2009," Tyler replied. He frowned, and then said, "I just noticed now that each incident is two years apart, and the second two are immediately after something the Autobots and Decepticons did." He was quiet for a moment, and then he slowly said, "Makes me wonder if something will happen this year. Anyway, they retried Oroville and D.C. because apparently since the Transformers were involved in those cases, it puts the evidence and the whole situation in a different and new light. If the TV is anything to go by though, I think Stanton just wants this to all be over, and I don't blame her." He hesitated, and then asked, "Do you even have an option to stand as a witness?"

"The two officials who approached me about it said something about how they were unwilling to resurrect the trauma involved with the accident, so I had an option," Alexis said, her grip tightening on the steering wheel.

"They'll probably ask about Stanton's behavior prior to the battle, hell, I don't even remember that," Tyler said, shaking his head in dismay.

"Tyler, were you even _there_?"

"Okay, I'll hand you that one." Tyler snorted, and then said, "Maybe you should turn them down, can you even remember what you had for breakfast last week?"

"Cereal, idiot. And it was the dry cardboard kind too," Alexis countered.

"Oh, that you'd definitely be able to remember. Maybe you should tell the guys that you can't since you're having difficulty remembering even the small stuff," Tyler said, picking at the seat lining. "They want a witness so bad? They can ask what's-his-face from N.E.S.T., Maxwell."

"So long as I don't have to." She frowned, and then said, "This means I have to talk to him, doesn't it?"

"He can't be _that_ bad… well, not that Ari's really told me anything about him, what did happen between the two of you?" Tyler asked, glancing at her.

"He decided that as my boyfriend, he could ignore his rank as lieutenant and question me on the battlefield and essentially try to take over my life under the guise of protecting me," she replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Sighing, she added, "Maybe the workplace wasn't the best place for a relationship."

"Do you even want one?" Tyler asked curiously.

"Well, I'd like to know what happened with Stryker Davis, but apparently since no one knows where he went off to, there's not much we can do now, is there?" she said, glaring at the road. "I hope you know that I'm irritated with you," she added after a moment of silence.

"I hope you know that I'm only doing what Ari told me to do, which the doctors told her. Something about possible PTSD? They weren't thrilled as it was when you passed your medical exams as well as every other exam they could think to throw at you and you still agreed to continue serving," Tyler said, looking smug now.

"How the hell do you know my medical records?" Alexis said, glancing at him incredulously. "No, wait. Don't tell me…"

"Ari was really, really worried about you, all right? She kept nagging the doctors each step of the way, wouldn't even leave your bedside. We talked night after night, and then I finally came down to stay with you guys," Tyler replied. Frowning, he said, "Stryker was the only one who didn't show up that I thought would, so I dunno."

"Tyler, how can I prepare myself for future confrontations if you won't answer any of my questions?"

"Because, there's nothing to prepare against. All gone," Tyler said, leaning his head against the seat, his eyelids fluttering closed as exhaustion began to creep up onto him. Alexis could see him out of the corner of her eye, and felt guilty for losing her temper there for a moment.

"I'm sorry," she said finally.

"It's all right. You're stressed, I'm stressed, Ari's probably stressed too, which means her boss is stressed," Tyler replied, grinning softly now. "Stryker did that all the time to you and Ari, stressed you two out that is, but for some odd reason that I will never be able to fathom, you actually put up with it then. Ten bucks say you'd still do it even now if he was here."

"Have to find him first, maybe I'll do that after Ari gets back," Alexis said, shaking her head in dismay as she went onto the ramp that lead to the Massachusetts Turnpike. "Call it a hunch, but he might tell me whatever it is that you won't."

Tyler suddenly perked up in his seat. "Cool! Can I come with you? We can leave soon!" he said, grinning broadly. "Please?"

"Wha- why?" Alexis blurted out, glancing over at him.

"_Because_. First real adventure since I lost a good portion of my eyesight, and I know Ari means well but I hate being cooped up all the time," Tyler said, glancing at Alexis unhappily. "It can be a road trip, those are easier to do."

"Tyler, as awesome as that would be to do, I wouldn't even begin to know where to start," Alexis said as her phone started buzzing where she'd left in the cup holder. "Can you get that?" she asked. "Don't worry if you can't…"

"Nah, I got it." She heard Tyler fumbling with the phone for a few minutes before pressing the 'Call' button, and then he said "Hello?" Silence, and then "She can't talk right now, she's driving…that won't fly with the police." Tyler snorted to himself at the choice of words before adding, "What is it that you wanted anyway? Oh… well, I don't know if she has plans tonight… how about she calls you back… all right, I'll have her call you back! Bye!" He pressed the 'End' button before tossing the phone back into the cup holder. "That would be Maxwell."

"Oh? And what did he want?"

"Friendly dinner at some restaurant in Natick. He said he had a proposal we might be interested in, and I told you'd call him back about that." Glancing at Alexis, he added, "I wasn't sure how you felt about it."

"Got it, thanks for taking the call." Pinching the bridge of her nose, she said, "I suppose we could give him our proposal about standing witness then, unless of course the officials don't want anyone else. I don't think I'd make a credible witness anyway."

"Don't sell yourself short. You never know."

Alexis shrugged. "Whatever helps a person sleep at night, I suppose."

Tyler rolled his eyes. "I have melatonin for that." Settling in his seat, he added, "Wake me up please when we get there."

"No problem."

* * *

**A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the feedback on the first chapter, and I hope you all enjoy this story as much as the first two. **


	3. Fear

**III**

**Fear**

* * *

"Tyler, are you almost done?" Alexis called from where she was waiting by the front door. Her coat was draped over one arm – nights got cool in the summer despite the daytime heat – and the car keys were in the other. They were to meet Tyrone Maxwell in twenty minutes, and Alexis had wanted time to not only get into the thick of Boston, but also to navigate to the seafood restaurant he'd chosen, find parking and somehow not be late.

A shuffling sound, and then, "Lemme grab my phone, and then I'll be ready. Ari might call tonight, remember?" Tyler called from somewhere within the house. She heard something scraping against the wood, and then his footsteps as he approached, stuffing his phone in his pocket. "Do you have the keys?" he asked, grabbing his windbreaker.

"Yes, ready?" she asked, reaching for the door.

He grinned at her. "When am I ever not?"

She smiled, bumped shoulders with him lightly, and then opened the door and stepped back to let him through.

He was already buckled in by the time she got down to the old blue Audi that Ari loved to death since it was confirmed to be 'alien free'. Just even _mentioning _the idea of getting a new car always turned Ari into an anxious wreck, and Tyler had mentioned to Alexis that he was just waiting for the Audi to collapse altogether before Ari finally admitted it was time to buy a new car.

"So where is this place we're going to?" he asked as Alexis backed the car out of the driveway. "I know it's seafood, I'm looking forward to the shrimp, but I don't know if I've ever been there before."

"No idea. Google Maps and Tyrone's directions are going to get us there," Alexis replied grimly as she headed toward the beginning of the printed directions. "And if we get lost, we can blame my driving."

"Oh, I thought we were going to blame Tyrone for giving us faulty directions," Tyler replied, glancing sightlessly at the window next to him; whenever the two headed out, he consented to wearing sunglasses to keep questions at bay and dispel any notions about his sometimes erratic behavior. Medically, it was supposed to keep his eyes from straining too much and worsening as doctors searched for the best way to restore his eyesight. He'd lost it in unusual circumstances, and the other methods they'd tried so far had either barely worked or not at all.

"Contrary to popular opinion, I don't blame Tyrone for _everything_," Alexis said, mentally running through her memories. "Okay, so maybe I did," she said, grimacing.

"If it's any comfort, he blamed you too when things went wrong. I always thought that the two of you were extremely stubborn, you even more so since New York," Tyler said, shrugging.

"How was Stryker and I toward each other?" she asked, taking her eyes off the road for a split second to glance at him.

He sighed. "Interesting, that was for sure. Talk about a serious love/hate relationship there, Ari was rooting for you two anyway. You didn't let him push you around, he competed with you and won more often than not, and come to think of it, I don't know if you guys ever kissed or what, but there was less…prickliness between the two of you. Even if the two of you didn't always get along. Which was far more often than I'd like to admit," he said, grinning slightly at a half-remembered memory. "I think Ari said he was from somewhere in California, Tranquility I think the place is called. He didn't believe in aliens either, I remember he got into a scuffle with Riley over it after Mission City."

"Sounds charming," Alexis muttered dryly, but couldn't stop the smile tugging at the edge of her mouth.

"You apparently thought so too, once the two of you stopped fighting anyway," Tyler replied, bracing himself against the car door as Alexis took a last minute left. "I know for a fact that Ari's driving skills did not come included with this car, _please_ take it easy," he whimpered as Alexis steadied the car.

"Sorry, almost missed the turn. I've forgotten how hard it is to see the street signs around here sometimes," Alexis said, glancing in the rearview mirror to make sure that no police were following them, a habit straight out of her teen days.

"Ari likes to make it up as she goes along if she misses a turn, we usually budget an extra hour of travel time if we're going anywhere outside this neighborhood," Tyler said, grinning.

"Did Stryker drive well?" Alexis asked as she kept her eyes on the thickening traffic she was going to have to squeeze through for the next turn.

Tyler opened his mouth to respond, frowned, and then closed it again. Then he perked up with a thought, then deflated a second time. "You know what? Now that I think about it, I don't think I've _ever_ seen him in a car before, much less actually driving one," he said slowly, slumping against the back of the seat.

"Ever?"

"Ever." He straightened, and then said, "It was always you, Ari, me, _us_ in a car, but I don't think I've ever seen him drive before. We all went places, but I only ever saw him fly his F-22 places. If he couldn't fly it, then he wouldn't go. But sometimes he'd show up where we were, even in driving distance, but not once did I see him get into a car." He shrugged, and the added, "Guess I wasn't paying _that _close attention. Oh well."

Alexis made a face. "Well, we know where he lives, right? If we start there, maybe we can eventually track him down," she said, feeling a foreign flutter of hope in her chest. "You said Tranquility, right?"

"That's what I remember anyway. Ari was tripping him up for some reason, and he was getting a bunch of facts wrong. I just can't remember if it was because she thought he was lying or because she was messing around with him since he was new and rubbed her the wrong way the first time they met," Tyler said, his frown deepening.

"Might have been that he rubbed her the wrong way, Ari overreacts like that," Alexis said, grimacing when she saw that she was going to either race the light or wait at the stop line. Then again, the traffic light had just turned yellow, and if she accelerated… "Tyler, you might want to hold on, I think I can make this cycle."

"Why do I always follow the crazy ones?" Tyler asked to himself as Alexis accelerated the car as much as she safely could; the light turned red just as she crossed underneath it, so she considered herself to be in the safe zone. "Wait- I hear sirens," he said a few seconds later, reflexively turning around in his seat to glance back.

"Even through closed windows?" Alexis asked, praying that he was wrong even as her gut froze and her heart dropped into her stomach when she looked up to see the familiar blue and red flashing lights. "You have _got_ to be kidding me," she complained, pulling over to the side as the white and blue police cruiser pulled over behind her. "The freaking light was still _yellow_," she grumbled as she reached over past Tyler for the glove compartment while switching on the emergency blinkers. "Think you can find the car registration?" she asked, noticing that the police officer was almost to her side of the car.

"I can try."

With that, she straightened back when she heard the telltale _knock-knock_ on the window. Keeping her hands where the officer could see them, she lowered the window. "Officer," she greeted, keeping her tone light.

"Ma'am, are you aware that you went significantly over the speed limit in a crowded area? You pushed forty in a thirty miles per hour zone in the middle of the dinner rush," the officer said, raising an eyebrow as Tyler accidentally upended the glove compartment's contents. "What's wrong with him?" he asked, eyeing Tyler suspiciously. "He looks like he's going to be sick."

Alexis glanced worriedly at Tyler, and to her shock, the officer was right; Tyler was an interesting shade of white and green, and starting to hyperventilate. "He's blind, sir. I asked him to get the car registration. He also gets panic attacks whenever the police shows up, he and his girlfriend had traumatic experiences with the police in the last couple of years," Alexis replied, realizing just how off her words sounded now that she was speaking them aloud. Hoping she wasn't going to get into deeper trouble, she added, "I'm really sorry, officer. I know that it sounds crazy, but it's true, sir."

"Actually, I believe it," the officer said, taking a step back as Tyler rested his head against the dashboard, breathing quickly. "Why don't you just hand me your license and registration, and I'll process them and you can calm him down?" he said, taking her license and allowing her a few moments to search through the mess on the floor for the car registration. "I'll be right back, Ms… Preston," he said, glancing briefly at her license.

"Thank you, sir."

She leaned over to Tyler and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Tyler, focus on my voice. Everything is going to be all right," she whispered in what she hoped was a placating voice.

It didn't work. Tyler only gagged before yanking his door open and stumbling out onto the sidewalk, leaving the car door wide open. Helpless and well aware she couldn't leave because of the officer still behind her, Alexis cursed herself before leaning forward in her seat to watch as Tyler stumbled forward to the nearest trashcan and threw up.

"Here is your license and registration, ma'am. Since it was your first offense in ten years, I'm going to give you a written warning. Next time, we won't be so lenient," the officer said, returning with the documents. Eyeing the still-shaking Tyler, he added, "If you get out to help him, do keep your blinkers on please."

"Yes, thank you officer," Alexis said, taking the documents as the officer promptly left. Stuffing it all in the glove compartment to deal with later, she got out of the car as the officer's cruiser left the curb and rejoined traffic. "Tyler! Tyler, he's gone, it's okay, it's going to be okay," she said, gently placing a hand on his shaking shoulders and rubbing his back with the other. "Come on, let's go back home, I'll be more careful on the road this time," she said soothingly, well aware of the stares the two of them were attracting from surrounding pedestrians.

"What about d-dinner?" he stammered, wiping his mouth with his sleeve before turning to look at her. He looked absolutely miserable, Alexis personally didn't think that continuing their dinner plans was the best idea when he still looked panicked and was physically unwell.

"Do you still want to go to dinner?" Alexis asked quietly. "I won't hold it against you, and we can both get takeout and eat it at home. What do you want to do?"

"But what about Maxwell? Won't he be mad at us for standing him up?" Tyler stammered, face twitching as his eyes darted around at the surrounding people.

Alexis began guiding him back toward the car. "Standing him up implies that we're _both_ dating him, which I'm pretty sure we're _not_," she said, smiling when Tyler grinned softly. "Don't worry about it, I can just call and explain the situation." Opening Tyler's door, she added, "I'm sorry for speeding and attracting the police officer's attention, I knew that you and Ari hate the police but I didn't realize it was that bad."

"You know, I don't think it was even that," Tyler murmured softly and she almost missed his words completely. "I'd like to go back home, if you don't mind. You can get takeout for me and then tell Maxwell that you'll be late and just eat dinner with him." He shrugged as Alexis picked up the last few glove compartment items from the floor and slumped in his seat when she shut the door.

"Don't talk like that, I'll eat takeout with you. I can always call Maxwell and explain what happened," she said, getting back into the car and turning on the engine. After waiting another light cycle to happen so she could take advantage of the red light, she eased the vehicle back into the road. She knew of a place to turn around up ahead, and glanced worriedly at Tyler as she headed in that direction. She wanted to know what he meant by '_I don't think it was even that_', but definitely didn't want to subject him to another panic attack.

When they finally arrived back to the house, Tyler was opening his door even before Alexis had pulled the car to a complete stop. He was halfway up the path when she shut the car off. Sighing, she reached into her purse for her phone, and was dismayed to find that it had somehow fallen to the floor in the rush of getting pulled over and dealing with the officer and Tyler all at once. Picking it up, she sent a text message explaining the situation and ended it with the promise to call with a better explanation in a few minutes.

Then she got out of the car.

Tyler was curled up on the couch when she finally entered, draping her coat on the little table in the entrance hall. Noting his still pale color, she said, "I'm going to heat leftovers, you don't have to eat now. Let me know when you want to, so I can make something for you."

"I just want to sleep right now… that cop isn't here, right? He stayed in the city proper, right?" Tyler asked, jerking up in his spot to look frantically out the window. "_Alexis!"_ he yelled when she didn't immediately respond.

"Ty, I'm right here!" she said, rushing to the living room. Glancing out the window, she said, "Don't worry, there's no one out there. No police, no pedestrians, just Mrs. Richter with her Pekingese."

"I hate that dog. It's vicious," Tyler muttered, rolling his eyes as he settled back down on the couch. "Let me know the _second_ you see a police car… what was the number of the car that stopped us?" he said, suddenly jolting back up again.

It clicked. He'd thought it was the Decepticon disguised as the police cruiser. "Tyler, it wasn't that Decepticon, they're all dead, remember that?" Alexis said carefully, heart breaking a little when Tyler flinched at the mention of the Decepticon.

"No offense Alexis, but how would you know? You can't even remember the one _person_ that was important to you," Tyler said harshly, and Alexis breathed out slowly through her nose, reminding herself to be patient and not lose her temper. "What was the cruiser number?" he repeated.

Alexis thought for a moment. "Five, seven, and eight, in that order," she replied. "It was blue and white that said _Boston Police_ along the sides. Nothing remotely threatening for you."

" 'For me'?" Tyler repeated, eyes widening.

"I sped, remember? Now just rest, you're imagining things now," Alexis said, pulling the blanket from where it was draped over a random armchair. "Just rest, Ari will call in a little while and will think that I'm keeping you up at night for movie marathons if she hears how tired you are."

"Hm, I do like movie marathons. Still enjoyable, it's like listening to an audiobook, but with more special effects," Tyler said drowsily as the adrenaline began to die down, leaving exhaustion in its wake. "Can I have soup?" he asked, tilting his head to look up at Alexis. It was eerie sometimes, how accurate he could get to looking at another person's face when on other days, he was all over himself.

"All right. Any preferences?"

"Surprise me, please."

Alexis smiled, shaking her head as she went back to the kitchen. She pulled her phone out, read the newest text message –_ Emergency came up, will talk tomorrow, can I drop by? –_ and then set the phone down on the counter, kneeling to find where Ari and Tyler had squirreled away the soup.

_Skitch, skitch._

Her head snapped up at the sound, but she frowned when she realized that there was no one or anything else in the kitchen other than her and a bunch of inanimate objects that couldn't do anything on their own.

"Easy girl, now is not the time for Tyler's paranoia to get infectious," she muttered to herself as she ducked down and began searching for the soup again. She'd read the official report after Chicago, the report that gave the initial details and a promised follow-up once the investigation revealed more insight. All the Decepticons that had been on Earth had been there, and all were dead. They. Were. Dead. Dead meant gone forever. No exceptions.

She didn't see her phone twitch for a few seconds before falling completely still again.

* * *

**A/N: Well Alexis, at least you didn't run a red light while making a left turn, unlike the two idiots I saw the other day and made me confused as hell as to the rules of the road for that split second.**

**Sorry for disappearing like that, Real Life hit me harder than I thought it would.**


End file.
